Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Python Developers Wanted: Dead or Alive

I've been working at a new gig in Boulder, Colorado. We're writing an earth rendering engine, a la Google Earth. Why bother? Unlike the competition, we're going to be putting lots of our imagery on hard drives so that you can take it off the net: in your car, on a plane, in your backpack. You can sync changes when you get home, or use a cellular connection for low bandwidth data like local searching and geolocating your friends. If you've wanted it, hopefully we're on it (but feel free to send suggestions or leave comments).

I think 3d earth rendering is going to be big (maybe I've just read Snow Crash too many times), and recent announcements by Microsoft seem to confirm my suspicion. This blog doesn't get many comments, but usage statistics betray the silent masses who frequent it looking for KML tools. Are you tired of writing web services and pounding KML into new Google Earth features? Does writing a car navigation system 12 hours a day in python using a real 3d world API (we won't poke too much fun) sounds like your cup of tea? Maybe you're tired of Carmack taking credit for your OpenGL code. I heard somewhere that start-ups aren't en vogue anymore, but I know there's other people out there who regret missing the bubble. If you're confident in your abilities and can write the code to prove it, we're looking for you.

It would be nice if you lived in the US and wanted to move to Colorado (its sunny and warm even when the slopes are open and there's plenty of outdoors to go around. Send us an email.

Are you serious? You only want to work with people with the same views? Do you only read articles written by Democrats as well? (I'm assuming that's what you are. It would be a rare Republican that would shy away from "friction".) Quite frankly, I think much of the pleasure of life is in meeting and making friends with people who hold every variety of opinion...

I am 40 now, and set in my views, and I'm really hoping to find a nirvana with co-workers that would merit me squeezing out my life and soul into my job. I don't want a 9-to-5 job anymore; I want to be part of a team that is on a mission that is about much more than simple business goals.

The problem with car nav systems is not so much the lack of eye candy as it is the lack of real world useful data that will allow a driver to change their behavior in a profitable way. Traffic data is only available for expressways and is under the control of government entities who parcel it out to a few paying entities who aggregate and resell it to radio stations. You can't get good exit-to-exit travel times that would allow you to decide if side streets were better. And there is NO data available for most side streets. Satellite views are available for the US but good ground level views of roads and intersections are not. Navteq is no longer interested (like they were 10 years ago when I was an architect there) in expanding the types of data they include. They just want to sell more of what they already collect. Hardware expense is a problem too. You want something with the performance of a Wii that you can leave out overnight in -15 degree weather in Alaska or sitting in the sun all day in summer in Texas - and that will sell cheaply enough that you can make a profit when WalMart chews your wholesale price down. Despite all the negativity I really do wish you luck. It was a fun field to work in I wish there were more opportunities in it here in Chicago.